oscars ’09 | lance

oscars '09 | lance

I ran into Lance Black on Saturday evening at the IFC post-Spirits bash. He was standing in a very small group, and the iW crew spent some time chatting with him and congratulating him on how far he’d come. I wished him the best over the next 24 hours and said that I hoped he was able to enjoy the ride. He seemed to be taking it all in stride. And then I started thinking about a moment in Berlin the week before, when I ran into Lance at a bar. He made a good natured quip about all the attention he’d been getting, adding that soon enough people would move on and forget about him. And he seemed ok with that.

But then last night he made a speech that resonated with so many people. Numerous friends have mentioned it to me over the past 12 hours or so. It will not be quickly forgotten. (Transcript via AMPAS):

“Oh my God. This was, um, this was not an easy film to make. First off, I have to thank Cleve Jones and Anne Kronenberg and all the real-life people who shared their stories with me. And, um, Gus Van Sant, Sean Penn, Emile Hirsch, Josh Brolin, James Franco and our entire cast, my producers Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen, everyone at Groundswell and Focus for taking on the challenge of telling this life-saving story.

When I was 13 years old, my beautiful mother and my father moved me from a conservative Mormon home in San Antonio, Texas to California, and I heard the story of Harvey Milk. And it gave me hope. It gave me the hope to live my life. It gave me the hope one day I could live my life openly as who I am and then maybe even I could even fall in love and one day get married.